Samueli situation uncertain

The expectation had been that U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney on Monday would approve a plea agreement by Ducks co-owner and Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli, thus paving the way for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to hand down a final resolution on the indefinite suspension the league issued Samueli in June.

Instead, as reported on OCRegister.com, Carney rejected a deal in which Samueli would have paid $12.25 million and received five years probation as a result of his June 23 guilty plea to one count of lying to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators probing a $2.2 billion employee stock-options scandal at Broadcom.

While attorneys for Samueli and the prosecution are expected to negotiate further in advance of a scheduled Sept. 29 appearance before Carney, the judge said he would prefer to wait until the conclusion of the criminal case against Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas III and the company's former chief financial officer, William J. Ruehle, before signing off on a sentence for Samueli.

Given that a trial for Nicholas and Ruehle is not scheduled to begin until April 7, it now appears that it could be a long time before Samueli's fate, in both the court system and with the NHL, is determined.

Educated guesses had been that had the plea agreement received Carney's blessing, Samueli's suspension from the NHL might have wound up being in the neighborhood of a year. Certainly, the ban could be longer if any new plea bargain or a potential trial resulted in Samueli serving jail time.

Samueli is allowed to attend Ducks games, but the NHL has prohibited him from taking part in any team activities during the suspension. Ducks co-owner Susan Samueli has opted to abide by terms of the suspension in support of her husband and in order to avoid any improper appearance.

The decision by Carney on Monday came after the original date for Henry Samueli's sentencing had been postponed from Aug. 18.

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